They nailed the characters, the story beats, the villains, costumes, everything. I was skeptical after season 2 though I’m not a book purist, but they really know what they’re doing. Even constrained by the stupid 8 episode per season limit by Amazon.
And that episode this season is probably one of the best episodes of fantasy television.
I think the show varies from the books so much that they can only be considered loosely related. That said I mostly enjoyed this season, though I do occasionally struggle to remind myself to keep it separate from the books so that I can enjoy it .